Shroro:

Christmas Worship and the Rituals

by Jose Kurian Puliyeril

Christmas is a widely celebrated festival not only within Christendom, but also widely cellebrated among masses irrespective of any sort of discriminations. For the Oriental Orthodox Christians, Easter is more important than Christmas in teaching, still Christmas is celebrated with pomp and pride. Due to the excess pressure and influence of the consumer civilization, we are losing a lot of spiritual values of the celebration, knowingly or unknowingly.

For a real Christian, Christmas is the solemn occasion to welcome his or her savior into his or her personal life. We should not forget that almost the entire Israel, the sons of Abraham, had spent a lion-share of their lives in the expectation of the savior of the world and mankind. As there was a hint that the Savior would take birth in a virgin, almost all spinsters had longed for such a great blessing. Many Kings, Prophets and other lay leaders had given leadership for the great expectation of the Lord. In fact the Old Testament itself is the history of the great expectation of the savior. As the perfection of all prophecies, our Lord incarnated in the womb of the most humble virgin, who gave birth to Him in a manger. He who came to save us had no proper shelter or even proper clothing. He could have all worldly facilities but why He did not accept anything of that sort? We must think soundly. When we would celebrate Christmas, generations after generations, we must think about it. The Churches must take care to look for caring all homeless, destitute and the hungry, rather than spending large amounts for the mere namesake celebrations.

During the Christmas worship in our Churches, we have an unavoidable ritual called the `service of the fire flames.' A small pit will be made, especially in the western side of our Churches in advance. The material used as firewood will be arranged in advance. Our fore- fathers in Malankara used to collect a parasite on trees called "Ithil kanni" and the dried pieces of this parasite would be arranged in the pit. The parasites do destroy the trees and plants. It was an indication for the faithful to take away all sins, which do spoil them like the parasites on the trees. While the "ithil kannies" are burned, it showed that we the faithful could burn and destroy all sinful habits and practices, which spoil our spirituality and if we spoil them in the fire, which stands for our Savior, they would be spoiled for ever. So also we used to place the balance of the palm leaves of the Palm Sunday. The faithful brings the palm leaves which they had preserved in their homes with reverence and deposits in the pit before entering the Church before worship. This service of the fire flame would be conducted during the Rasa prior to the Holy Eucharist of Christmas service. During the Rasa, the celebrant reads the Holy Gospel and in between he sets fire for the firewood from all the four corners. When the flames get up, the entire congregation goes around the fire to offer the incense to the fire, reciting the prayers.

We must be cautious about the significance of this ritual, as it is meaningful. The flame as a whole represents the Lord God, who introduced Himself as the light of the world. In St. John 3:19 we read, "Light is come to the world". When flames go up, it proclaims this truth. It is also based on our desire to shine before men as our Lord said in St. Matthew 5:16. When we see the light of the fire, a desire must arise in our minds to shine like the same. The fire removes darkness. The fire reminds us our responsibility to remove the darkness from the entire world. The fire provides warmness. This reminds that we have to take care of one and all who long to have little warmness in their lives. We must consider the thousands and thousands who are starving, homeless and without proper clothing. Our people used to take the ash from the pit and spread in their fields. In fact our people used to collect it in a competitive spirit. Now many ignore such traditions.

Wish you all a very happy Christmas and a blessed Happy New Year.